Saturday, February 08, 2014

Twist Me by Anna Zaires: Pre-release review & Giveaway

Synopsis

I never thought this could happen to me. I never imagined one chance meeting on the eve of my eighteenth birthday could change my life so completely.

Now I belong to him. To Julian. To a man who is as ruthless as he is beautiful – a man whose touch makes me burn. A man whose tenderness I find more devastating than his cruelty.

My captor is an enigma. I don’t know who he is or why he took me. There is a darkness inside him – a darkness that scares me even as it draws me in.

My name is Nora Leston, and this is my story.

WARNING: This is NOT a traditional romance. It contains disturbing subject matter, including themes of questionable consent and Stockholm Syndrome, as well as graphic sexual content. This is a work of fiction intended for a mature, 18+ audience only. The author neither endorses nor condones this type of behavior.

Lisa’s Review

Twist Me by Anna Zaires is a moderately dark, fall in love with your captor romance that I believe will appeal to many readers, including those that don’t necessarily venture into the more adventurous darker reads. While the premise of the story definitely has darker undertones, the execution of it is more along the lines of intense erotica/bdsm. The undercurrents that move the story along are more romantic in nature in my opinion rather than the focus being on the horrific things a captor can do to his/her captive and because of this I once again will state that I believe this book will hold a wider appeal than most novels classified as “dark erotica”. This is essentially a tale of a young girl who gets caught up in a horrifying situation and her journey throughout her captivity. Told solely from the heroine’s point of view, it was a gratifying read that I was immersed in from beginning to end.

Nora Leston is an almost eighteen year old in her last year of high school. There is nothing truly out of the norm when it comes to Nora. She goes to school, has had a few boyfriends, has good times with her friends and, like most seniors in high school, she will soon embark into the new and unknown territory known as college life. Nora is out with her friends one night when she feels him. Seeking out what is causing this prickly feeling within her, Nora’s gaze is drawn to a beautiful man who is intently taking her in. She is immediately scared. However, some morbid fascination has her feeling drawn to the mysterious stranger as well. Nora never expected to see the alluring man ever again. But she does. A few days later after a scary altercation while she is out on a date with a cute guy from school, Nora is taken and her date is left behind. Nora awakens not completely understanding that she now has a new and twisted existence and that it is one of a captive.

Julian Esguerra pretty much remained an elusive character and I am going to keep it that way with this review. He is a ruthless. He is gorgeous. He is dominant. He also knows what he wants. When he sees Nora one night, he tries to stay away but the longing to claim her as his is too all consuming and soon enough he is giving into his dark desires and taking his beautiful captive to a remote island. She is all his and he intends to keep it that way. He has finally found someone he desperately craves and nothing will stand in his way of conquering all of her.

I never knew pleasure and pain could co-exist like that, but there’s something strangely addictive in that combination, something dark and forbidden that resonates with a part of myself I never knew existed.

***

He turns me inside out, takes me apart, and puts me back together – all in the span of one night.

***

I feel possessed by him, like he's taking more than just my body. Like he's laying claim to something deep within me, bringing out a side of me that I never new existed. Because in his arms, I experience something I have never felt before. A primitive and completely irrational sense of belonging.

Nora is taken into captivity and soon discovers what her captor truly wants from her. She is led down a path of sexual exploration there to fulfill Julian’s sexual needs and cravings. As much as Nora tries to fight and put a stop to all that Julian does to her, she soon is willingly giving her body and mind to her captor all the while realizing that he is molding her into someone to please him and also someone that has the same dark desires that he does. The fine line between pleasure and pain becomes blurred and Nora begins to crave Julian’s cruelty just as much as she needs his tenderness. Nora is quickly being consumed by the darkness that resides in Julian. Does she even want out any more?

I quite enjoyed the narrative and think it was well executed. I think Anna Zaires did a wonderful job of getting into the mind of Nora the captive and exploring the contradictory mental state that she often found herself in. Nora struggles with the extremity of her feelings for Julian. Her feelings were definitely dual in nature. She hated him for taking her from her life but, simultaneously, was mesmerized and enthralled with all that was being done to her by this powerful man. Nora’s journey from the beginning of the tale to where this book leaves us was what kept me engrossed. We are not given too much on Julian so I found it hard to truly connect with his character, although he did fascinate me. Still does.

All in all, I really enjoyed Twist Me. I was pleasantly surprised at the direction the book took towards the end and loved the actual ending. Nora and Julian’s story does not end in a cliff-hanger but their story is far from over. The next book is called Keep Me and I for one am looking forward to more.

Giveaway

We’ve got an ebook of Twist Me to giveaway to one lucky winner. For your chance to win, just enter the Rafflecopter below and Good Luck!!